


Forbidden

by nyagosstar



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: Angst, M/M, Wartime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-09
Updated: 2012-10-09
Packaged: 2017-11-16 00:09:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/533300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyagosstar/pseuds/nyagosstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set in some ambiguous future, Roy's a general, Ed's a colonel and they're at war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forbidden

**Author's Note:**

> This was written as a prompt and was supposed to be only 1000 words but somewhat beyond that, because Roy wouldn't shut up. It was also written while I listened obsessively to Make This Go On Forever by Snow Patrol. I think I like this one quite a bit, but I'm not sure if it works as well in my own head as it did on paper.

“This has to stop.”

Roy didn’t look up from his intent study of the map spread before him. Finding some way to salvage their situation, to maximize the number of soldiers who left the field alive, to somehow see a way out of this, took the brunt of his concentration. “Did you have a particular complaint, Colonel, or did you just want to bitch?”

“We’re dying, Mustang. Look at the map, look at our men. There’s no way out of this pass and there’s no way out of this war.” Ed’s tone was flat and distant, as though spoken by a bored reporter during a radio broadcast.

Roy looked up and it was all he could do not to drop everything, cross the room and clutch Ed to him until the dead look went away from his eyes. But they weren’t the only ones in the room and while many things were more acceptable during wartime, Roy didn’t think for a moment it would be forgotten when the fighting ended. “Can we have the room?” he asked the collection of colonels surrounding him. 

From the first whispers of war, the first deployment, the first shot, Ed had been with him. If Roy had to go to war, Ed swore he wouldn’t go alone. As terrible as it was, every single day Roy was thankful for Ed’s presence and his perseverance. He kept Roy focused and fighting when it all seemed beyond hopeless.

But looking at him now, pale and hollow, Ed looked a meal and twelve hours of sleep shy of death. “What do you want me to do?” It came out harsher than he’d intended, but Ed didn’t seem to hear him. 

“We just got a missive from Central.” Ed brandished a sheet of paper. “They want to dump more soldiers into the battle, like another couple thousand men were what we needed all along.” He dropped the paper to the floor. “But there aren’t enough soldiers left at home so they’re pulling people in against their will.” He drew his metal hand harshly over his face, the pressure leaving first white then red marks on his pale flesh. “Anyone over sixteen is being taken right now.” He let his hand fall, his eyes full of anguish: the torture of a thousand lifetimes. “Al.”

“Fuck.” It was the only bastion of their peace, knowing Al was safe. Knowing that as much as the day to day business of war might tear at them, Al was as far away from it as they could manage. “What do you want me to do?” less harsh this time, Roy was already running through the list of people left alive who still owed him favors. It was a sadly short tally as he’d used most of his clout to keep Ed with him.

“Nothing.” Ed stared at the ground for a moment, full of fierce concentration, before his eyes snapped up on Roy. He crossed the room in three quick strides and pulled their bodies together, squeezing so hard, Roy lost his breath. “I love you,” he whispered fiercely into Roy’s throat, and tightened his hold preventing Roy’s response.

When he stepped back, his face and eyes were clear, nothing left but a determination that sent a chill through Roy.

“What are you going to do?”

Ed shook his head. “Don’t try to stop me.”

“Ed, wait. Whatever you’re thinking, whatever you’re planning, you can’t do it by yourself.”

“The hell I can’t. I don’t know why I waited so long in the first place.” His clap and touch came so quickly, Roy didn’t know what happened even as Ed whispered an apology and walked from the room. Only when Roy tried to follow did he find himself alchemically sealed to the floor.

He swore and struggled against the bonds, but Ed was too determined to care about his curses and too talented to leave an easy route of escape. Roy had a couple sticks of chalk in reach—he’d learned early on in the fighting to carry them at all times—but he lost precious time drawing the array and working himself free. He raced from the tent, ignoring the startled faces of those he passed, knowing where Ed would go.

At the peak of a small hill, Roy first caught sight of Ed, his long coat fluttering in the wind as the battle raged below him. Even from the distance, Roy could see the hard set of Ed’s jaw, the line of his shoulders that meant he was committed to see his next act to the very end, no matter what the cost.

“Ed!”

Ed half turned, a faint grin on his face. “You’re faster than I thought.”

“Please, you can’t kill them all, you can’t hate them that much to kill them all.” It would be too much, an act Ed could never come back from. Roy needed to reach him, to stop him, but he couldn’t gain his footing on the rise. The loose gravel slipped beneath his feet with each step, carrying him further away from Ed.

“It’s not about hate, it’s not about killing them.” Ed looked back to the field of battle. “It’s about Al, and it’s about love.” He clapped his hands and knelt, pressing his palms firmly against the soil. For a moment, nothing happened. Ed stood and crossed his arms, waiting as the world around them seemed to take a breath. 

Roy himself, found he could not breathe for the terror building in his thoughts at what Ed had done, what Ed was capable of doing. He was afraid to speak, to move, to do anything to upset the balance of the moment.

Then the wind picked up, flinging dust into Roy’s eyes and sending Ed’s coat in a mad flurry. The stillness exploded into sound and light, silhouetting Ed—his frame in black against bright orange—and then, nothing.

*

“They’ll come back.” Roy didn’t know what else to say at the field below them, empty of all enemy soldiers. 

Ed shook his head, resting against Roy’s legs. From the weary slump of his shoulders and the difficulty he had just blinking his eyes open, it seemed Ed didn’t ever want to move again. 

“They won’t, because you’re going to send a message to their leader. You’re going to tell them that if they come for us again, we won’t just send them home.”

“They won’t be able to ignore the show of power.” He reached out and threaded a hand through Ed’s hair, hardly able to believe himself what Ed had done. Roy wasn’t even sure how it was possible to move thousands of soldiers back to their homes. He certainly couldn’t even begin to understand the theory behind it. Not many would believe the stories, and those who did would set their sights on destroying Ed to keep themselves safe. It was a temporary fix, but he couldn’t help but be grateful for it.

“Let them come.” For a moment he was still and distant and not the man Roy knew at all. Then he sighed and pressed his head back into Roy’s hand and was Ed again. “I want to go home.”


End file.
